Objective measurement of pilling by image processing technique

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to report on a new pilling measurement system that has been developed using image processing technique.Design/methodology/approachA pilling assessment cabinet is designed and developed which captures images and a software is developed to process and analyze the image of a pilled fabric to find out the various pilling parameters such as total number of pills, total area of the pills, mean area and number of pills per unit area. The image processing software processed image data of both the existing subjective assessment standards and pilled fabrics and assign suitable grades for comparison.FindingsThe grades assigned by the machine correlates well with that of the experts grades and the results are reliably reproducible. The system can count the number of pills, find their total area, and their mean area. The results of EMPA‐W2 and EMPA‐W3 standards behave almost similar. The ASTM standards also gives somewhat the same results as the EMPA standards in number of pills but has a wide variation in the pilled area and mean pill area. The IWS standards produced an entirely different result from the other two standards, which leads us to the conclusion that all these standards are not objectively comparable to each other.Practical implicationsThe machine grade becomes a suitable methodology to compare the different grading systems.Originality/valueTraditional pilling tests are subjective by nature. Moreover, standards set by different organizations are not comparable with each other. This method presents a more universal and objective approach to describe the nature of the pilling.